The Witch Twins
by Astarel
Summary: Alec and Jane's untold story of abuse, of agony and of vengeance.
1. Twilight and Shadow

**My favorite emo twins from **_**Twilight**_**. I've always felt sorry for Alec and Jane. Perhaps this story will give them some peace ^_^. Please read and review! I'll write another chapter if I get positive feedback. Thanks! **

_Chapter One: Twilight and Shadow_

**Alec POV:**

"It's your fault she left," he growled.

I tried not to look at the face of my tormentor, but he grabbed my chin and thrust my head aside so hard I thought my neck must have broken. But I didn't feel anything. No pain, no sorrow. After months and months of abuse, my emotions had bled out of my body. I felt _nothing. _

I was forced to look into the eyes of the person, no, the _creature_ that I hated with a passion.

Fat clung on like tar to every inch of his body, disgusting ooze that leaked over the sides of the couch that he lay upon in near perpetuity. The reason for his morbid obesity was evident from the assorted debris that laid at his feet like a burial mound- a mountain of crisp packets, crumpled beer cans and mangled dinner trays, upon the top of which a pair of short, corpulent feet extended into equally corpulent legs.

"Your fault! And your stupid sister too," he rambled drunkenly.

And after years of hearing nothing else, I had begun to believe it. Jane and I had known no other existence, but one of servitude, and oppression. And if we had, it had been washed clean out of our minds by years of endless brainwashing. We dared not leave, for we had nowhere to go. _He _had been especially careful in cutting off our relations with any family we might have had. Slowly, but surely, our aunts and uncles, cousins and friends had been severed, as cleanly as slicing string with scissors.

_He _had backed us into a corner, dangling us over the precipice of oblivion, with absolutely no hope of escape from the void.

And as much as we were loathe to admit it, _he _was our stepfather.

With a mighty swing of _his_ arms, I was thrust out of the room, reduced to a quivering heap by the force of his blow. Only after I heard the blare of the television drowning out _his _inebriated slurs did I dare to crawl back to my room, doubled over in pain. _He _hit hard, even harder than a man of his immense mass should rightfully be able to.

I remembered how once, _he _had used his strength not for subjugation. The recollection was weak; the memory from so long ago that it seemed ethereal. _He _would hoist Jane up in the air with but one hand, and me in the other, while our mother watched from the side, laughing together with us as we tumbled back to earth and landed in his warm, comfortable arms.

This had been before she had abandoned us, and _he _had begun his metamorphosis into a demonic tyrant. We'd never figured out what had happened to our mother; why she'd vanished one night, without explanation. We'd just believed the lies that _he _told us. Just like everything else _he'd _lied about.

Both their names were a taboo between Jane and I. Through unspoken agreement, the refusal to speak their names, perhaps we'd be able to heal the wounds.

*************

Jane had already returned to our tiny "room" by the time I mustered the strength to return. Her eyes, sparkling violets, saddened visibly as she saw my newly inflicted wounds. I tried not to let the pain show, but we knew each other too well for that. Sighing, she beckoned me over, and I lay down for her to tend to my wounds.

We'd long ago learnt that bandages were pointless, since any reparations would swiftly be destroyed by a renewed wave of assaults the next day. Instead, we settled for washing the wounds with tap water and trying to keep it sterile. No mean feat, considering the state of the room in which we were imprisoned when not being _his _slaves.

It was a tiny room, with hardly enough space for the two of us lying down. A tattered bed of newspapers lay in the corner, its print rendered unreadable by a fungal rot, next to a pile of whatever rations we had managed to spirit out from the kitchen. _He_, of course, did not feed us.

Yet, despite the dust and decay, this tiny room behind the kitchen was our sanctuary, our only refuge in this entire madhouse, where we felt safe and secure. In my mind, behind the layers of broken will and shattered hope, some spirit lingered, a part of me that thirsted for vengeance.

I would make _him_ feel all the pain he had inflicted upon my twin and I over the years. Or… Perhaps I could make him feel _nothing at all._


	2. The End of All Things

**Wow! 4 reviews! Thanks a lot, guys. Ok, here goes chapter 2. Enjoy, and of course, review! ^_^**

_Chapter Two: Witchfire _

**Jane POV:**

_It has been said, that in the end of all things, we would find a new beginning. _

_But I had no idea when this eternity of slavery would end. In fact, I had lost count of time years ago. Weeks? Months? They were all meaningless to me, each day the same as the other. Even dawn and dusk were indiscernible, for we had seen neither the fierce sun nor the gentle moon since we were first imprisoned._

_But I remember with clarity, this one night, when everything was to change._

Alec and I stood over the sink, washing dishes in complete silence.We could hear the angry blare of the television from upstairs, and even hislabored breathing, a slow wheeze that would occasionally accelerate into a hard pant as _he_ strained to move.

We knew better than to underestimate his speed or strength. I guessed that we had about ten more minutes to finish our chores. We constantly listened, over the stillness of the night, for any indication that _he_ had left his seat and begun his warpath towards us.

So far, so good.

I peeked at my twin through my hair. His face, so much like mine yet so different, was grim, determined, and his hands attacked the filthy dishes furiously. He'd changed since last night. I could feel spirit radiating from him. It gave me hope too.

Of course, we'd long since learnt that hope was a fragile thing.

"Five minutes left, Jane," Alec murmured.

I snapped out of my reverie. Alec quickly gleaned my expression and squeezed my hand. I smiled weakly. For all that we did not have in the world; at least we had each other.

I glanced through the window. _He _had boarded it up tightly, to completely and truly trap us here, but Alec and I often imagined what life must be like outside. We imagined the day, and longed to be in its fiery embrace. We imagined the night, and inhaled its tranquility. We remembered verdant fields of grass and flowers, one where _he _and _she _used to take us for picnics as children.

Bitterness welled up in my mouth. That was a time long gone. It would never return, and I had to remember that.

"He's coming," whispered Alec.

I felt my throat close up.

We heard him before we saw him, a disgusting, wobbling, oozing noise as he dragged his corpulent mass down the stairs. But this time, as _he _stood before us, I could see something different in his mad eyes.

_He_ was completely drunk. I could almost see the alcohol circulating in his veins, and smell the fire of his rancid breath. But before either Alec or I could react, _he _charged towards me, propelled by alcohol and psychotic energy, and pinned me to the floor.

His incredible mass absolutely crushed me. I tried to scream, cry out in pain as I felt my ribcage shattering, but could not, for my throat had constricted, tighter than a serpent would strangulate its prey. I heard _him _mumble incoherently, the proximity of his mouth to my ears shocking me.

"Useless…slattern…might as well…use you,"

Alec shouted, trying to heave _him _off me, but he might as well have been trying to move a house. The lack of oxygen in my brain began to take its toll. I could hardly hear anything, see anything. My twin's screams, my stepfather's advances, all were a blur. I felt the darkness coming to claim me.

I felt my ragged shirt being pulled off me.

He had gone too far.

A magnificent rage possessed me, and hellfire surged forth from my soul. It burned through me, searing my every muscle, every particle of my being. My mind screamed from the pain, but I would not let it overcome me. I redirected it towards my stepfather. Every wound, every injury he had inflicted upon me, he would feel it thousand-fold.

The flames engulfed _him_, utterly consumed him. He screamed out in pain, as though a thousand knives had sliced his flesh. His desperately clutched his heart, dancing in mad palpitations, as though it were about to explode from his body. He begged for mercy, through screams of agony, his dying throes, but I did not stop. I conjured every painful thought, every possible memory of what he had done to me. To _us. _The hellfire within me raged, and I poured it out to the only possible source, letting it run like molten lava through his body. He felt his blood boil, and a pain so extreme that no man should ever be allowed to experience.

But no man was he. He was a _monster. _

And then I felt another presence. Alec was there, standing beside me, and I felt a darkness pouring out of him, a pure miasma. The stepfather-thing twitched violently, his eyes rolling around madly in their sockets, and I felt _something _leave him. It was intangible, ethereal, a blackness that spewed out of his eyes and into Alec's hands.

He convulsed once, and then ceased to move, eyes frozen in what seemed to be black ice. The only indication that he still lived was the slow rising of his chest.

Alec and I stared at him, the man who had kept us in thrall for so many years.

"He'll never feel anything, ever again," Alec hissed.

*************

And so we ran.

Into the dark woods east of where we had been imprisoned for so long. We did not know where we were running to, but it was exhilarating. The smell of the night air, the wind whipping in my face and my hair streaming out behind me. For the first time in years, I felt free.

I didn't even notice the three pairs of red eyes watching us from the shadows.

**Read and review! Lots of reviews = Chapter 3! ^_^**

_Astarel_


	3. Let The Flames Begin

**Ok, maybe you didn't see this happen, but I thought that the original incarnation of Chapter 3 was a bit off, and I didn't want to post any substandard work. So here's the edited version!**

**9 reviews! Thanks to everyone who added this to their favorite story lists. Keep 'em coming!**

_Chapter Three: A Symphony of Frost and Flame_

**Jane POV:**

Weakness.

I couldn't stand it. Ever since we'd done the deed, Alec had begun to feel regret. He tried to deny it, but I could read it on his face.

Why should we be weak? We had limitless power. All living things would bow to our will.

I'd enjoyed the pain of our disgusting stepfather as I'd gutted him. I tasted it, a delicious, bloody taste, and smelt the hellfire and brimstone in the air. I reveled in the pain that I created with my mind, danced in its destruction, bathed in its burning glory. If only Alec would see things my way.

My way, through my newly awakened eyes.

I surveyed the woods around me. Alec had ventured in earlier to search for firewood. In his absence, I had fueled the dying embers with the corpses of animals I had slain. Which reminded me- the fire needed to be rekindled.

I chose the nearest rabbit and focused on it with my mind.

Instantly, its throat constricted, as though the thickest of serpents had wrapped around it. Its tiny lungs shriveled, withered, and suffocated as it exhausted its oxygen supply. Its long, disgustingly long ears flailed madly while its body did cartwheels on the ground, desperately fighting to take a breath, until the creature was trying to shear a bloody hole in its neck with its teeth, fighting the invisible force that had bound its throat.

I found its pain delicious.

I tormented its crumpled form with a sharp stick, prolonging its suffering for a few seconds more before swiftly skewering it, and was about to toss its mangled carcass into the flames before realizing that there was another fire over the horizon. How odd. Surely Alec wouldn't have changed our camp without telling me about it? Regardless, I decided to investigate.

Snuffing out the remnants of last night's campfire, and the charred remains of the various animals that had perished to fuel it, I set off in the direction of the flames, which seemed to be growing larger by the second.

The woods were quiet as I emerged from the copse. I didn't know whether the silence of the animals had been wrought by the night or my presence. The shadows were incredibly thick, and in the weak light of the moon, I could hardly see beyond my outstretched arms. The freezing air didn't help either, and I heard the fire within me roaring with anger as it was suppressed.

And then, I was acutely aware of another presence. The night cloaked it, hid it in a black veil, but I could hear it gliding from tree to tree, using the canopy to shield itself from my sight. I glared above, feeling more irritated than scared. Surely it was just an errant forest creature?

And then, another. I think I heard it laugh, a truly bone-chilling sound that seemed to rile the air and caused the thin mist to grow into suffocating smog. I caught a flash of a pair of eyes, darting rapidly through the undergrowth. Eyes that glowed crimson, filled with malice and… hunger?

I was angry now. I couldn't burn these two… creatures… in the near-sightlessness of the fog. And then I felt _fear. _

Horror rippled through my body, a demon seed that flowered in my mind. This was a degree of emotion I'd never felt before, in higher order than even the fear I'd felt during my enslavement.

This new feeling was _pure nightmare. _

I couldn't see the creature that was radiating this sickening, repulsive, weakening emotion, but I knew I had to get away from it. I stumbled a few steps backwards, swiping desperately at the air in front of me, as though I could somehow combat this intangible foe.

I reached for the flames and utilized them in a way that I never had before, conjuring a halo of brilliant flames that coiled around my body and radiated into the surroundings, a devastating nova of psychic assault that left my attackers reeling in pain, suffering the torment of never-ending immolation.

The icy talons of fear loosened their grip- and I ran.

A thousand brambles must have sliced through me as I dashed in my panicked frenzy through the woods. I remembered the fire- and hoped that Alec was still there to aid me.

I screamed his name out aloud, countless times as I ran, but with only the resonance of the dark woods to answer my calls.

I burst through the edge of the woods- and the creatures pounced on me.

"Aargh!"

_Astarel_

**I will have Chapter 4 up in a couple of minutes! I wrote them as one long piece originally, then decided that it would be better as two parts.**


	4. The Children of the Moon

_Chapter Four: The Children of the Moon_

**Alec POV: **

I buried my face in my hands, brooding. Never had I felt this uncertainty before.

_I still saw his eyes in my mind, frozen in black ice, a void of the emotions and thoughts that I had absorbed. Up till last night, I'd believed him to be nothing more than a monster. But now, I had taken some part of him within me. As I'd drained him dry of his senses, his emotions, I'd felt something else behind the anger, the hatred. Was it pity? Remorse? _

_It didn't matter._

_We'd ensured that no one would ever find his body. _

And then, a single scream broke the silence of the night.

"Aaah!"

I launched myself off the log and sprinted towards the sound, a thousand morbid scenarios screaming through my head as I ran. The wind was bitter, and the winter freezing, but I ignored the forces of nature lashing against my nearly bare body.

I knew my sister's scream. I could remember it from happier times- days when screams might have meant laughter, days before we had discovered our innate capacity to butcher a man like an animal. Days before Jane had turned into a sadistic monster.

But despite all her cruelty and spite, she was still my sister… all I had in this existence. Had I a choice to save her?

**Iribelle's POV:**

_Curse the fool! _I swore explosively.

We'd captured the female, but her brother was still out there. Our master would not be pleased if we came back with only one of the two.

I beckoned Demetri and Athenal, pointing my fingers with superhuman speed, commanding us to split up and search.

"Use force if necessary! Beware the witch twin," I hissed before gliding off. My subordinates nodded mutely and darted off in opposite directions.

He would likely be afraid of us. But we were hardly the real danger in the territory of the Children of the Moon.

**Alec's POV:**

It seemed to appear out of nowhere.

One moment I was running a desperate race to rescue my sister, and the next, I was staring straight into the eyes of a massive, feral wolf. It howled as it leaped out of the trees, in an explosion of leaves and branches, and pounced on me, savaging me with its wicked claws. I felt a torrent of blood pour out of my veins. The beast roared in satisfaction and pummeled me again, knocking me face down onto the forest floor.

Half a dozen more wolves stealthed towards me. I could see their massive bulk clearly in the light of the full moon, each wolf the size of a car. They observed me hungrily through obsidian eyes, eyes that glimmered with curiosity, eyes that reflected the luminescence of the celestial sphere that hung in the night sky.

I had moments left to live- at least my demise would be painless. I had lost so much blood, that my entire body was numbed, would be unable to feel the savage claws tear through my flesh, burning tongues drink my blood. The wolves tensed, ready to pounce-

And then I felt the frozen wrath within me cry out.

_NO!_

The frost within me expanded to unfathomable proportions, screaming against its bonds, desperate to be released and to consume the enemy. Each second it swelled, until the cold began to spill out of my body, a vortex of white mist that cloaking my body in a vicious blizzard.

The frenzied pack leapt- and then collapsed and howled as they lost their sight. The white miasma of death snaked amongst them now, a killer fog that siphoned their very being. I felt rejuvenated as their life was assimilated into my own. But the wolves were not so easily cowed- they relied on their sense of smell to renew their assault against me. I felt claws rend my face and tear into my calves, and I bled until the pain was no longer a reality to me.

_More!_ The vampiric being within me screamed, eager to feed again.

The wolves choked, their howling silenced, as thoughts began to leave them. Black ice shrouded their eyes while I absorbed each and every fiber of thought, savoring its individual flavor, and then consuming it.

And then I stole their emotions. Love and hate, joy and misery, every last drop of black ambrosia dripped down my throat, and I hungered for more. I fed upon them until I no longer knew which emotions were my own.

Did time pass? It might have been a second, or an hour. Everything was blurred, a wicked storm of conflicting emotions that caused pain I would have thought impossible.

Finally, the white miasma receded, until all that was left was a field of corpses. Black ice encrusted each cadaver, a morose coffin that showed the wolves' final expressions of horror and disbelief.

I looked down at my own body. My appendages had been mangled beyond recognition, and my chest had been torn open, revealing vital organs that had begun to leak out of my chest. Crimson blood oozed from my every orifice, forming a morose puddle around my feet.

A shadow seemed to be moving, its crimson eyes on fire as it descended upon me, nuzzling me with its bared mouth.

I hardly felt the bite on my neck as I died.

*************

_Astarel_


	5. The Dark Gift

_Chapter Five: The Dark Gift _

**Alec POV:**

_The first thing I remembered was the pain. _

I screamed out as my shattered bones mended, the process of a lifetime compressed into mere seconds, unimaginable agony surging through my nerves as bones burst through countless layers of tissue. Within moments, my ribs, reduced to tiny stubs and sundered marrow by the ferocity of last night's attack, had extended into lengths of bone, thicker and stronger than my own had ever been.

Mangled flesh and lacerated skin spontaneously regenerated, the dead cells within them revived and empowered by the venom that inundated my ravaged body. Strength like I had never felt before coursed through my veins, and my heart palpitated madly, its muscles so strong that it sent hot blood flowing in a deluge throughout my body- blood that was tainted with the black, vampiric venom.

_And then there was fire._

It overpowered whatever physical pain I had felt, a searing agony that burnt me from the inside out, boiling my blood and sucking moisture from my mouth. The thirst was maddening! I flailed, desperately needing something to drink, until my teeth clamped down on my tongue, releasing a river of steaming blood into my throat. Faintly, I found myself enjoying the nectarine taste.

I convulsed once more as the inferno raged on within my skull, and regurgitated out the blood I had just ingested, a scarlet fountain that showered the surroundings with my own vital fluids. I tried to lift my arms, to smear the sanguine liquid onto my face, to somehow quench the flames, but its newfound strength would not respond to the commands that crawled along my weakening nervous system.

_And then there were the memories._

Every single thought, every emotion and recollection that I had absorbed coursed through my crumpled body. I felt pain on so many levels that it seemed ethereal. Random flashes of memory soared across my vision, a vision so recently strengthened that it had trouble distinguishing between thoughts and reality.

_And then there was nothing. _

**Iribelle's POV:**

I gazed upon the witch twins. The girl- Jane, I was told her name was- had slowly begun to recover from the transformation. The pain that she had inflicted upon us during our short-lived chase was nothing compared to what she had just experienced. Now she sat by her brother's side, clutching his hand tightly, eyes horrified as she watched him turn.

Her visage, like all our kind, was stunningly beautiful, but still bore the likeness of a child. Her brown hair, matted and bloodied, glowed in the firelight, draped like a veil over her angelic face, with full lips and alluring, scarlet eyes.

I gazed upon her adolescent body. We had made the wrong decision by turning her at such an early age. Now she and her brother would be forever trapped in their twelve-year-old shells. Of course, had we not, they would likely be dead by now.

Despite Alec's impressive show of slaying an entire pack of the Children of the Moon, he had been a mangled mess by the time I had arrived to turn him. I made a mental note to tell Master Caius of the feat. As a human, his ability had been lethal enough to carry out the work that would have taken a full group of Volturi several days to complete. Now, amplified by the dark gift, he would only grow more powerful.

Cassandra, who had Seen Jane and Alec in the first place, had been dead right- as always. These twins would be an unparalleled asset to the Volturi.

I watched as Alec spat out a cascade of blood, and made motions to restrain Athenal and Demetri. They were powerful vampires in their own right, but absolutely unable to control their bloodlust.

In any case, the transformation was almost complete. We would be on our way to Volterra before sunrise.

**Jane POV:**

_I felt reborn._

Power as I had never known it surged through my very being, and I reveled in it. To think that I had been afraid when the beautiful woman with the raven hair, and her two barbaric compatriots, had found me in the woods. I knew they had changed me into something more. I felt the strength in my arms, the beauty in my visage and the power in my mind. I knew what I had become, but dared not say it.

_Vampire._

I fought the sadness that was welling up in my chest as I watched my brother go through the mind-rending agony, and tried to mask it with a stoic, emotionless front, for I knew that the woman was watching me. Inexplicably, I found myself wanting to please her, to hear her satiny voice praise me.

Even at the price of not being there for my brother.

Alec groaned loudly, and I helped him into a sitting position. I stifled my shock at his face- it was more beautiful than I had ever remembered it. His features were absolutely flawless, more resembling fine, carved marble than skin. Behind his straight jaw were rows of sparkling teeth, dazzling me as I struggled to find something to say. Only his eyes, a pool of scarlet blood, betrayed the vision of perfection.

I heard the rustling of silk as the woman emerged from the shadows and took Alec's limp form into her shrouded arms.

"Can you hear me?" she whispered to my twin, her scarlet lips tantalizingly close to his own.

I suddenly felt a surge of jealousy.

Alec murmured unintelligibly, and frustration clouded her face for a moment. She gestured towards her servants, and the large primate-like man came forward and placed something on the ground.

The scent of it hit me like a wall- a beautiful, ambrosial smell, one that permeated my every orifice and made my every instinct scream out in thirst. I hissed loudly, the strange, serpentine sound unfamiliar coming from my throat. Alec had a similar reaction, breaking out from his lethargy and springing free of her arms almost instantly as he smelt it.

We both made for the strange, delicious aroma, and didn't even flinch as we realized that we were devouring a human corpse. We sank our teeth, as hard as iron, into the cadaver, and drank the blood as though it were water.

The fire cast an eerie glow over the man's body, illuminating the violence of his death- his chest had been cleft open by a powerful blunt force, and his skull caved in so deep that his eyes had sunk to the back of his head. We were only too happy to add to the desecration, mangling his throat and grasping his vertebrate for support as we drank deeply, our very fingers shattering bone as easily as chalk.

The woman smiled as she watched us ravage the man's body.

_They didn't hide their stepfather's corpse very well, did they? _

*************************************************************************************

_Astarel_


	6. Dying of the Light

**As always, please read and review! This is a **_**really **_**long chapter by my standards ^_^. Sorry for the week-long delay between chapters! Didja miss me? **

_Chapter Six: Dead and Sparkly _

**Alec POV:**

___The howling wind knifed into my face but I did not feel the cold._

In fact, I'd felt very little for the past two days, a lack of emotion that suited my new appearance. I stared at my body, not yet comprehending the depths of the changes that had taken place on more planes than I had previously thought possible.

My skin was rock-hard and as cold as death, and had taken on a corpse-like pallor that grew with each day- alabaster blight that seemed to glow even in the darkest night. I fingered my left arm gingerly, with elegant, long digits that felt unfamiliar against my flesh. Just last night, I had stabbed myself ferociously with a steel knife, testing the limits of my nigh-invulnerability, yet my veins had refused to yield even a single drop of blood.

It was a testament to how little of my humanity remained with me.

I glanced sidelong at Jane, who lay sprawled in the plush leather seats. Her brown hair flew askew, revealing brilliant crimson irises that absorbed the light of dawn and radiated malevolence. I shuddered involuntarily at the sight of her eyes, hellish pits filled with the lifeblood of dozens.

My own eyes were an endless void of black, obsidian stone that mimicked the deathly ice that entombed the people I had drained of emotion, a fate possibly worse than death. I knew not why I shied away from drinking blood, something that should have come naturally with my metamorphosis. But the fragments of emotions that I had consumed fought a desperate battle to quench the fiery thirst I felt in my throat.

I knew what I felt, and I appreciated it. It was in, however miniscule a manner, a reminder that I was not doomed to be a monster.

_Regret. _

**Iribelle POV:**

I cursed silently.

This aversion to blood- it was not normal. The boy seemed to be sustained by whatever primal energy he had absorbed, yet his eyes revealed a level of thirst that I had never seen in all my hundred years.

I shot a glance at Athenal, and he nodded somberly, accelerating the car into well over a hundred miles. I did not know how long Alec would survive in this state- we had best make haste to Volterra before the worst happened.

Had it been my choice to make, I would strike such fear into his mind, horrifying images of what would happen if he neglected to feed, until he cowered on the ground and gorged himself on the blood of thousands.

Unfortunately, the masters would not be pleased if one half of their new acquisitions came to Volterra as an insane, shivering meatsack. With any luck, Afton would be able to _persuade _him when we returned.

Jane was another case altogether. She'd taken to vampirism with remarkable facility, and immediately agreed to come with us to Volterra. I believed that she was the only reason why her brother had reluctantly tagged along.

She reminded me of myself as a newborn… passionate, thirsty and uncontrollable. We would have to be very careful in controlling her.

Volterra began to come into view over the horizon, its marble buildings and stone edifices prominent in the skyline. The city, now empty, would by early afternoon be a mass of tourists piling into the chapels and museums. Already, shops were beginning to open, ready to seize their slice of the tourism pie.

The car sailed through the paved streets, drawing lecherous glances from the city's adolescents, at both my vehicle and my person. With decades of practice in fending off the various denizens of Volterra, I smiled airily and lay my head on Athenal's lean chest. Immediately, they averted their gaze and dispersed, the risk of angering the leonine man outweighing whatever they sought from me.

My mate smiled wryly but kept on driving.

Demetri coughed loudly, and pointed towards the Cathedral of Santa Maria. Evidently, he had sensed the rendezvous point. Breaking out of my embrace, Athenal nodded and turned the car sharply around. I scanned the gathered crowd intently, trying to pick out our- wholly unnecessary- escorts.

And then I saw her.

_Oh crap. _

**Jane POV:**

The first thing I noticed about them was the way they moved.

There were two of them- one male and the other female; I was fairly certain- dressed in cloaks that shrouded their entire bodies in black silk. Their footsteps were silent, even to my superhuman hearing, and they moved gracefully, bodies gyrating in a fashion so beautiful that it was mesmerizing to watch.

I was dimly aware of leaving the car, my legs moving without conscious direction. My vision only registered these two beautiful creatures- even cloaked, their beauty was dazzling. I felt my mind spinning in dizzying circles, reorienting itself so that the universe revolved around this pair of gods.

"Chelsea," Iribelle intoned lightly, yet her voice dripped with menace.

The feminine figure bowed slightly, and slipped back her hood, revealing her perfect visage. If I had been attracted before, I now was nothing short of infatuated. Even Iribelle, devastatingly beautiful, was nothing but a ditchwater tramp compared to her. I played around with her name in my mind.

_Chelsea. _

"Afton," Iribelle acknowledged the male, much more pleasantly, as though to accentuate her dislike for Chelsea. He nodded, and with a cloaked hand, gestured for us to follow him. Chelsea had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

I heard Iribelle snort derisively.

We entered the cathedral, and I was momentarily stunned by the aurora of rainbow light that arced across the room, the progeny of the fierce radiance that filtered through the stained glass windows and murals. A small group of tourists sat idly in the wooden pews, neatly stacked against the walls. A massive window yawned across the far end of the chapel, decorated with intricate metalwork and stained glass that poured liquid color into the small room- color that was surging in a wave towards us. Sunlight washed over me- and I was engulfed in a diamond starburst.

I was wreathed in a halo of holy fire, the light of a thousand suns burning on my skin, a nova of intangible flames that swallowed the entirety of the chapel in a dazzling, white inferno.

I heard a hiss as Iribelle pulled off her shawl and hastily wound it around me. Yet, even the swaddling was insufficient to quench the raging fire. I stared at my still-sparkling skin, which had changed to the consistency of glass, refracting light in a barrage across the cathedral.

I was confused. Surely such pure light would never shine from the flesh of a vampire?

There was a high-pitched giggle- I realized that Chelsea was laughing contemptuously at Iribelle's oversight. Her scarlet eyes fumed with malice- only Athenal's strong arms restrained her from lashing out at the other woman. With impossible strength, she broke free of his grip, and with a feral snarl, lunged at Chelsea- only for her attack to be parried by Afton with one arm.

His hood had come loose- I saw his handsome face, silver-blonde hair flowing to his neck, perfect lips forming delicious shapes as he spoke.

"They watch. _**Stop." **_

__The last word was spoken with such force, the single syllable fired as though from a trebuchet, a steel bolt that smashed through my resolve and speared through my mind. Inexplicably, I felt the need to obey. I stopped, ceasing to even breathe. It was all I could think of.

_Stop. Stop. Stop. _

Iribelle and Chelsea writhed for a second more, then, as though seized by a sudden fit of entropy, froze. I heard vague muttering- then realized that our unintentional pyrotechnics had not gone unnoticed. A dozen-strong crowd had risen in the pews, eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

Before I could try to suppress it, the hellfire raged from my soul. It had been dormant for over three days now, and it was all the more thirsty for the wait. Without my direction, a rain of volcanic knives rained onto the crowd, drawing agonized screams as I maimed their minds on a cellular level. A fiery tempest radiated from my body, flaying their skin, roasting huge chunks of flesh and drying the fluid from their eyes, until they shriveled and threatened to explode from the pressure.

I felt alive again! Even the drinking of blood was trifling compared to the ecstasy I felt as I played with these mere mortals. As they collapsed, convulsing in pain, I felt Alec's cool hand upon my burning shoulder, feeling like ice against the hottest of fires. I struggled briefly- and then the fire receded.

A cursory glance behind me revealed that my companions had not been unscathed by my assault. Chelsea was clutching her chest and staring at me, wide-eyed, for the first time believing that her position as the most valuable amongst the Volturi was about to be usurped. Iribelle grimaced through the pain, but seemed amused at her rival's reaction. Only Alec was still on his feet.

Shakily, Afton rose and turned to face the debilitated crowd, his ebon-weave cloak rustling.

He raised one shrouded arm and spoke clearly, his voice deep and commanding.

"_**Forget."**_

__Powerful nausea ripped through the crowd, anaesthetizing their pain, and carelessly tearing apart their memory. I was swept off my feet, ushered into the antechamber. Afton flitted to the forefront of the room, and with a single finger, lifted the massive steel portcullis that clung on to the wall. Alec and I were shoved in, before the metal behemoth slid back into place.

Only days before, I would have been mortally blind and weak in the dark passage. But with vampiric sight, I saw with clarity the path we would be taking. It was a massive, marble stair, half parts elegant and half parts decrepit- each step crumbled with the curse of time; the handrails had long since succumbed to fungal rot. I counted with vampiric alacrity- the steps easily numbered in the thousands. As far as I could see, beyond the first hundred was only the black embrace of oblivion.

We were largely silent as we descended the stair, the memory of the earlier incident still fresh in our minds. The tension between Iribelle and Chelsea was tangible- the two women stormed down the steps, refusing to meet each other's gaze. I could almost smell the vampiric estrogen in the air. The rest of the vampires flanked Alec and I, forming a protective circle around us. It felt good to be important.

I could definitely sense some changes in their attitude towards us- especially me. Athenal glanced at me a trifle warily, as though he were afraid I would explode again at any time. I was certain that it was not himself he was worried about, but Iribelle. There was something between the handsome, pantherish man and the raven-like woman. Maybe it was one of those things I wasn't supposed to know until I got older.

The other vampire, Demetri, seemed fairly amused at Chelsea's indignation. I surmised that she was indeed, not very popular with her compatriots. Afton drifted close behind Chelsea, as protective of her as Athenal was of Iribelle.

Nobody spoke, but in the eerie, haunting tranquility of the stairwell, silence was noise.

After an indefinite amount of time- I really couldn't be sure how long, time seemed to ebb and flow in this endless stairwell- Chelsea and Iribelle stopped, exactly in step, before a massive wooden door. It seemed completely plain to me, far lighter than the portcullis, yet something told me that no amount of force would ever be able to ram down this door.

It had no bolts or locks, and for that matter, no doorknob. Only the presence of a single rune, hewn deep into the ancient bark in sanguine blood, gave any impression of its function**. **

**V.**

Iribelle touched the rune lightly with her pianist's fingers, and spoke, her bell-like voice rising high into the stairwell, reverberating, until its delicate peals amplified thousand-fold into the infinity above us, surrounding us in a sonic wave, a cyclone of force that seemed strong enough to destroy, yet hardly even stirred my hair.

"_Conosca uno, conosca molti."_

The door burst open, revealing a layer of adamantine plate that swiftly rolled back, recognizing the speaker at the entrance to their charged sanctum. Beyond it was another impenetrable plate… and another… another…

At least thirty feet of metal had shifted before the entrance was clear.

Iribelle smiled slightly, and whispered into my ear as she saw my awed expression.

"Welcome to Volterra."

*******

_Astarel_


	7. The Bitch Is Back

**I'm going overseas but I promise that I will bring good ol' pen and paper and write during my spare time! Thank you to all my readers, everyone please review! ******** A bit of swearing in this chapter. **

_Chapter Seven: One Must Die_

**Alec POV:**

The hall was at once both dull and brilliant. The walls were made of weeping grey stone, but interwoven with masterful tapestries that shone in a visual assault of color- the bloody red of war, the triumphant gold of conquest, the black pestilence of death, each bound together in a tenuous equilibrium that breathed vibrancy into the room.

Exquisitely-wrought chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, crystals that seemed to radiate darkness instead of light, their unholy gloom in conflict with the beauty of the walls, a shadow that cast shadows on the room below. The air was suffocating, thick with miasmic death, and lamenting the misery of countless millennia, as though nature itself rebelled against the brood of abominations that had housed themselves in the depths of the earth.

But the most prominent feature of the hall was not in the decorations, nor the architecture, but the congregation of vampires that stood within.

I counted quickly- more than twenty vampires were present, each dressed in ebonweave cloaks, faces hard as they stared at our party, all irresistibly beautiful, yet frighteningly austere at once. I could make out their expressions from under their shrouds, some surprised at my twin and I's diminutive stature, some contemptuous, and others yet smiling smugly at Chelsea's- the unpleasant vampire who had rendezvoused with us in Volterra above- distraught expression. The hellish light only accentuated their bloody eyes, scarlet beacons that glittered like rubies as they scrutinized us.

But three of the vampires stood above the others.

Sitting in majestic thrones at the front of the room, the triune observed us silently, their eyes a shade of scarlet that bespoke of deep wisdom, and dripping with power. Their cloaks were elegantly chromatic, each wearing a shade of gold, silver and bronze, trailing down onto the floor in puddles of silk and satin. They exuded a malevolent aura of authority- I could say with clarity that these were leaders.

The silence grew more pronounced as the gold-clad vampire left his seat, movements so precise and calculated that he must have had centuries to perfect his steps. Behind him, another woman moved in perfect tandem with her master, matching each of his steps with one of her own.

Iribelle whispered a single name in my ear.

"Aro."

With but three strides Aro had reached us. His hair was a color that might have once been dirty brown, length bordering masculine and feminine, a fringe curling seductively over his forehead. Despite his surely-ancient age, Aro's handsome face was nothing but the magnum opus of youth, and his lean body filled me with a sudden, inexplicable longing.

Then he spoke, addressing me directly, his voice sanguinely cheerful, unlike any of the other vampires I had encountered thus far.

"Ah! The newest members of our family!" His voice was hypnotic, and strangely lilting. "I trust you had a smooth journey?"

I was struck as though by a blow.

The darkness radiating off him was like the desert heat- overpowering and suffocating. I stared into his eyes defiantly, searching his soul- and the evil overwhelmed me. Primordial evil lurked deep within his unbeating heart, the seven cardinal sins polymerized into a shadow like no other. Lies and subterfuge, murder and deceit were prevalent in the gutter of Aro's mind.

I knew much of the ways of emotion, and this vampire had nothing but avarice consuming his heart. Within moments of meeting him, I knew that Aro would do absolutely _anything _for power.

He gave a light laugh at my histrionics, but I could sense deep undercurrents of anger that laced his lie. He broke his gaze abruptly, rising to his full height and turning his attention to Jane.

"Dearest Jane! You are indeed as beautiful as Cassandra made you out to be," he murmured, weaving his gaunt fingers in and out of my twin's hair. She hesitated, unsure of how to react. I shot her a fierce stare, and she did the first thing that came to her mind.

Aro was pinned to the ground by the force of Jane's psionic attack, flesh rending and tearing as though with a hacksaw. He screamed- probably for the first time in centuries- as he felt his legs being torn from his body, and choked in pain as his torso was trampled underneath the force of a thousand seas.

The woman who had been clinging to Aro's side looked as though she had anticipated this- she hissed and leapt unto Jane, violently knocking her to the ground. Both women tumbled across the floor, propelled by the force of her blow, biting and clawing as they tumbled, feral combat so swift that I could not possibly tell who had the upper hand.

I reached into myself, preparing to unleash the vampiric fog, but Athenal placed his hand on my shoulder, mouthing '_no'. _

My intervention was unnecessary- Jane had more human blood flowing in her veins than the rest of the vampires in the room combined. With a single bitch slap, she sent the other woman soaring across the room in a hailstorm of blood.

**Jane POV:**

_Feel the pain, bitch!_

As the vampire sailed across the room, I indulged myself in my bloodbath scenarios- and unleashed the power of my mind against her.

**Athenal POV:**

_Oh, __**great. **_

__Within ten minutes of our arrival in Volterra, Jane had managed to assault Aro, and send Renata sprawling in a bloodied mess across the room. I rapidly constructed barriers between us and the rest of the Guard- who looked prepared to kill- before turning my attention to Jane.

The girl was knocked off her feet, breaking the concentration I knew she needed to use her gift. She screamed as Iribelle gestured at her, sheer horror coursing through her body, overpowering her base instincts and replacing it with fear. Alec hissed, as though he was about to take a swipe at me, but I bound his hands and feet.

Aro launched himself into the air and roared savagely.

The room fell silent but for the rain of dust motes, centuries of accumulated detritus tumbling from the high ceiling. Behind my shimmering barrier, the Guard stood ready, claws- and assorted other supernatural weapons- at the ready. The tension was tangible as Aro fell to the ground, Marcus and Caius close behind him.

He glared at Jane- and laughed.

"Exquisite! You are truly a wondrous pet, Jane," he murmured, as though oblivious to the conflict. He strode forward, none the worse for the wear, and motioned for Iribelle and I to release our grip on the twins.

Alec and Jane got up, shaking silently in outrage. Aro smiled breezily, and with a movement so subtle that it could only be accomplished by someone so sleight of hand- touched Chelsea's and Afton's palms.

The contact lasted only a split second, but it was clear to me what was about to come. With Chelsea's gift, the twins would soon find themselves desperate to obey Aro. With Afton's there would be no free will for either of them.

There was a flash of light, a commanding word, and then, nothing.

**Cassandra POV:**

_The witch twins had been enslaved. I could see that with perfect clarity. _

_But as of late, the futures had become obscured from my Sight. No matter how many long hours I gazed beyond the veil, everything remained adamant. _

_What a fool I was to think that I could change destiny. Aro would only grow more complacent now that the witches were within his thrall. _

I sighed, long and hard.

_To know that one will die. It is part of my curse. I cannot change what is yet to be. _

And as the full moon rose over Volterra, I sobbed, the empty, dry tears of undeath, air and sorrow that dripped to the stone floor of my underground prison.

_One of them would die. _


	8. Didyme

**Whoo… plot development ^_^. Sections in italics are flashbacks. If you enjoyed the story, PLEASE review! It really does inspire me to write faster. HINTHINT. A special thank you to **_**crazybeagle **_**for some ideas in the story. Go read her Fanfics : ) Note that Didyme is an actual Twilight character. **

_Chapter Eight: Didyme_

**Didyme POV: **

For the first time in a long while, I felt unhappy.

Sadness was foreign to me. Even without my ability to ward it off, it seemed like I had everything I could ever want- especially love. Marcus and I had been together for but a few short decades, yet I knew that he was the one for me.

Marcus and I were going to leave Volterra soon- leave behind Aro and all his dreams of conquest. It saddened me, of course, to know that I would be saying goodbye to my brother forever, but I knew that it was the right thing to do.

I absently played with my tawny hair.

Yet, why did everything feel so wrong?

_"Leaving?" Aro gasped. _

_Marcus nodded. I felt his hand tightening around mine. _

_My brother seemed torn. I felt terrible about doing this to him. What was I thinking? Maybe it was best to just stay here, to let things remain as they always had- _

_"When?" Aro murmured. He was staring between us, his face a mask of feigned concern. I knew that he did not reciprocate my genuine love for him- it was Marcus' departure that he was afraid of. _

_"Tomorrow," Marcus replied simply._

_It would be a crippling blow to the group that my brother had spent centuries forming, but I took no pleasure in destroying Aro's dream. _

_The two men stared, long and hard, at each other. Aro didn't even take his hand- the message was clearly conveyed even without telepathy._

_**Don't make me do this. **_

**  
Aro POV:**

_It was feeding time in Volterra, and the newborns had quite an appetite. _

Blood gushed in a fountain as Jane gnawed at the man's throat, muffling his cries as his lungs burst with his own vital fluids. She drank, long and hard, using her fingers to smash cavities in his chest, until his body had been cleft in half, each chunk of flesh emitting the ambrosial scent of gore.

She stood again, dropping the corpse like a toy, and laughed as she saw that Alec had finished his meal in a similar fashion. He smiled, and together they rolled around in the puddles of blood, wallowing in the thick, sticky candy, stuffing handfuls of flesh into their jaws and sucking out the blood like caramel. Jane snatched up the nearest human and broke off his legs like chopsticks, enjoying his sobs as she cracked his ribs, one by one.

_Such thirst… such strength. _

Alec drove his fingers all the way through the screaming man's body, thrusting in and out rhythmically, humming absently as he sawed the body in two. As he died, he bit through his skull, pouring blood into his lips, using the corpse as a grotesque cup.

Not sated, the twins pounced on the nearest man, stunning him with a storm of fire and ice, slicing him cleanly in half and leaping into the air, tongues lapping hungrily at the rain of blood that fell steadily from the ceiling.

_The grace of their attacks… it was almost poetic. _

The entire hall was living hell- dozens of humans ran amok, screaming as their compatriots were steadily devoured. A veritable lake of blood ran along the room, atop which corpses floated like dense islands.

Otherwise occupied, nobody noticed as I slipped out of the hall.

_  
"Will you give us your blessing?" Didyme ventured. _

_I knew that what she really wanted was my permission to leave- something I had no intention of letting __**any **__member of my coven do. _

_"If that is what you wish," I sighed. I squeezed my fist, channeling my rage to prevent me from striking down the ungrateful wretches. _

_Didyme smiled, sending waves of happiness across the room, and I felt pure joy inebriating me. I hated her for that, her ability to make me feel something that I truly hated. _

_Silently, Caius took my hand, his eyes wavering in uncertainty. _

_**You would let them leave? **__He questioned, thoughts probing deep into mine. _

_**Never. **_

I reached underneath my robes, pulling out a massive axe. The cold steel felt comforting to me, a sensation that could only be described as the justice of the grave. I fingered the blade as I walked, feeling the rune-etched weapon cut my indestructible skin in a shower of red sparks.

_  
Cassandra's face showed grim resolve as I opened the door to her cage. _

_"Come to finish me off?" she rasped, the rusty shackles around her neck preventing real articulation. _

_I walked towards the seer, showing her my outstretched hand in answer. _

_"You crazy bastard," she laughed morosely, the ghastly tones belying her resignation to her fate. _

_I watched her as she coughed up a ball of phlegm and spat it at my feet, eyes hardened, teeth clenched adamantly as she bored into my eyes. _

_She really was quite beautiful, in a barbaric kind of way. Even after centuries of imprisonment, her face retained its angelic qualities, cherubic lips and enchanting eyes unmarred by the coagulated blood that encrusted her entire body, a true testament to the fortitude of our kind. Her body lay prostrate on the floor, the thin rags she wore doing nothing to conceal her figure, and not for the first time, I imagined. _

_But focusing on thoughts of my mate, Sulpicia, I ignored my throbbing lust and reached out for Cassandra's palm. _

_The seer's visions of the future flowed into me, and I saw what needed to be done. _

Didyme was fast becoming a loose end to my cause- I would have to cut her off the rope.

**This was more of a filler chapter, really. More excitement next chapter, I promise ^_^. **

**MAKE ME HAPPY AND REVIEW**


	9. Sweet Sacrifice

**Sorry to everyone for the long wait between chapters! PLEASE review, it will drastically reduce the waiting time for the next chapter :D**

_Chapter Nine:_

**Marcus' POV:**

_It's perfect, _I mused as Heidi showed me the wedding gown.

_I saw Didyme, her beauty eclipsing the stars that hovered in mid-air, constellations that the one of the gifted amongst us had conjured to illuminate the ceremony. Like faeries the lights surrounded the bride, weaving golden thread in her hair and sprinkling stardust at her feet. _

_She walked to the altar, every footstep bringing her closer to me. Her smile sent waves of euphoric happiness throughout the hall, and even Cassandra, the priestess and my dearest friend- _

"Stop that," I growled at Heidi. I was none too fond of her illusions, yet it was in the woman's nature to identify and realize one's greatest desires. Her mirages brought out things buried in the past… things that I did not care to remember.

The blonde raven shrugged noncommittally, and snatched her finery out of my hands.

"Yes," Heidi sighed. "Everything is ready, except for one thing."

I fingered the pair of rings in my pockets. Ornate circles of gold and silver, I held them up in the dark light of Volterra, watching as the flawless metal repelled the oppressive shadow. The diamond on each was a miniature sun, setting my skin alight in a shower of boreal sparkles.

She seemed close to laughter. "When do you intend to propose to the theoretical bride?"

I glanced at Jane and Alec, smiling beatifically a few feet away. Dressed in the most innocuous child's garb, she in fire and he in ice, the twin dualities rose quickly as I beckoned.

Jane was evidently in a good mood, as she danced around me, her dress blossoming like fire. Her eyes were wide with excitement, and I couldn't help but fall into her trap, a butterfly drawn to a carnivorous flower.

"We're going to see Didyme," I explained to the pair, my voice unexpectedly tender towards the child-like vampires. Jane laughed in delight, while Alec nodded sanguinely. Didyme had fast become a friend and companion to them once they had tired of Iribelle's dark demeanor and Chelsea's manipulative nature, and with her infinite wellsprings of laughter and joy, kept the two occupied and away from single-handedly toppling us.

I wanted to make the moment special- Jane and Alec were like the children we could never have, and their presence created some semblance of a family outside politics and power.

Volterra had been completely transformed without Didyme even noticing. The sconces and candles had been turned bright for the first time in centuries, and one of the Guard had conjured celestial lanterns of light that drifted nebulously across Volterra.

Even now, the Guard was shepherding the prisoners of the dungeons below, slitting their throats like cattle and pouring their life into the bloody fountains, a sight that was at once, beautiful and delicious.

A scream alerted me to the death of our last secretary. Iribelle stood a few feet away, holding Elle's dead body in her hands, mouth clenching onto the woman's severed throat. Elle's electric blue eyes showed complete shock- she, like all those before her, had honestly believed that all it took was the beauty of a slattern to become one of us. Inclining her head slightly as we passed, Iribelle sliced the decapitated carcass through the spine and began to drink.

A necessary sacrifice.

Moments away from Didyme's chambers. Hesitating slightly, I ran through the lines that Athenal had faithfully prepared for me. The rings suddenly felt as though they held the weight of the world, and indeed they did, for me. The scent of blood wafted in from the main hall, arousing my thirst and derailing my fragile train of thought.

Wait. There was another smell mixed into the air.

The fragrance of death drifted out of Didyme's gilded door, a thick perfume that permeated all of Volterra, but the aroma was laced with sorrow… and the unmistakable aura of joy.


	10. FILLER

**Author's Note:**

Not a new chapter, but it seemed relevant to the topic. In the upcoming _New Moon _movie, Jane will be played by Dakota Fanning, and Alec by Cameron Bright. I think the former can pull it off, but Bright?

It took me a while to recognize him as Six in _Ultraviolet. _Further inspection revealed that he was Leech in _X-Men: The Last Stand. _Not quite who I wanted him to be portrayed by.

/discuss


	11. Sorrow

**Oh, I'm such a terrible person for not updating for so long! I hope everyone's still following this story. Reviews will definitely encourage me to write faster. *hint hint***

_Chapter Ten:_

**Alec POV:**

Marcus seemed to freeze in place. I smelt fear coming off his skin in waves; my body was like an empathic sponge, soaking up his emotion and taking it into myself. Yet another development to the strange, vampiric cold that radiated from my soul.

Jane was in no such way affected. Her eyes kindled an angry fire, and her hands glowed slightly as she pushed open the door. We were paralyzed as she entered the room, using the crimson flames in her palms as a torch.

They shone across the large room, a sphere of bloody red light that stretched to the ceiling and tinted the furniture the dark shade of dried blood. The shadows flickered, as though they were alive, watching; but Jane did not falter, the mischievous grin on her face completely vanished.

She disappeared into the darkness for a moment- and then screamed.

**Jane POV:**

I took ginger steps across the discolored marble, trying hard not to disturb anything. Didyme had had her room arranged in impeccable order- so much prettier than the mess that the quarters that I shared with Alec.

An ornately gilded mirror sat upon the dresser, refracting the firelight from my hands into a series of scintillating ripples. Diamonds glowed softly across my skin like organic jewels; I enjoyed the electric feeling as solid sunlight grew on my flesh. I needed no pretentious necklaces or amulets, coated in my own microcosm of the sky.

And then my foot hit something. It rolled away, and I quickly fell to my knees, hands scrabbling in the near-darkness. I hoped that I hadn't broken anything of Didyme's.

My fingers clasped around something cold, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I stood then, rising with the thing- and then screamed, long and hard.

Didyme's severed head was staring at me.

**Alec POV:**

It was as though a spell had been broken- Marcus roared and charged into the room, and as his fear disappeared, so did mine. I dashed into the chamber, breaking off shards of marble from the floor; and crashed into Jane.

She had backed away from the corpse, quivering; I didn't need my ability to feel that her sorrow was genuine. I put my hands on her heaving shoulders, allowing some of her anguish to channel through me.

I stepped over to Marcus, his mind almost as broken as Didyme's corpse. The elder vampire was clutching on to her broken body, his head buried across shoulders that no longer supported a head. His eyes wept dry tears, and his hands clutched her severed head.

"_Shh," _he whispered, quite mad. _"It's going to be alright…" _

I heard footsteps coming from down the corridor; surely some of the Volturi coming to investigate the overpowering perfume of euphoria and blood. I hoped that they were the ones I wanted to see right now.


	12. Misery

**Review please! I will withhold the next chapter until I get 10. *evil laughter***

_Chapter Eleven:_

**Athenal POV:**

The entire coven seemed to have been roused by the emotional grenade. The scent of blood wafted through the halls, and though it was clearly vampiric, the underlying currents of happiness made it a cause for concern.

Iribelle and I got out of bed at once, and dressed. If recent events were any measure, the twins would certainly have played a part in this…

**Iribelle POV:**

I could smell their fear.

It was coming off each of the Volturi in waves, as they realized that Didyme was dead. They were wondering who could have possibly assassinated a member of their royal family; how he had penetrated the castle, and how he had silently murdered her without alerting anyone.

We stalked through the halls in our nightwear. The gown was low-cut, exposing much of my person- Chelsea gave me a disgusted snort as we passed her room. Afton was stoning as usual, and did not seem to acknowledge either of us.

The four of us found Marcus, a broken husk of a man. He was clutching Didyme's head – a disturbing sight, even by my standards – and weeping openly. He had no fear in him, only sorrow.

Athenal quietly grasped his shoulder, and took him aside while the rest of us entered the chamber. A small streak of blood painted the ground, leading to Didyme's headless corpse. Chelsea and Afton immediately went for the twins, who were standing nearby, while I examined the body.

Her neck was burnt on its stump, and the flesh had curled up like linen under an iron. She did not twitch, like our kind did after decapitation; evidently, the killer's weapon was more than a simple silver blade.

My ponderings were interrupted as Aro and Caius swept into the room, their eyes wide with shock. He gave a yelp and fell to the floor, grasping her hand. The other vampire lord watched him warily, before turning to leave, and motioning for me to follow.

**Afton POV:**

Caius pointed at me, and then at his weeping brother. I obeyed, unthinkingly; Chelsea's chains were strong, and I had not been able to refuse another being's will in centuries.

Athenal gave me a strong glare that might have been irritation, or loathing. It was immaterial to me. My will was not my own.

Marcus had stopped speaking altogether, only clutching the dead woman's head and smelling her hair. He seemed more or less convinced that she was still alive. Oh, how I wished I were dead.

_**"Look at me," **_I said. My voice echoed with hypnotic power, and he obeyed. His eyes were startlingly empty, and devoid of emotion. _**"The woman means nothing to you. You will forget that she ever existed, though her memory will eternally irritate you like a fiery itch."**_

Just my own finishing touches to the shackles. I resented being controlled, and would do anything in my power to hinder the Volturi.

Marcus trembled violently, as my words seized his mind. I could almost feel the love bursting out of his chest, and fought hard to suppress that feeling. Eventually, when his heart had calmed and his mind became still, I completed his initiation to the ranks of the mindless.

_**"Forget!" **_

And with that, Marcus began his downward spiral into an apathetic zombie. Oh, the joy.

**Aro POV:**

It had all worked out very nicely. Didyme was dead – and I was not unnecessarily proud of what I had done – and Marcus would remain with us forever, his memory of my sister erased forever. Only Caius knew, and it was a faint idea at that. He would never be able to usurp me; with a touch, I would know all his plots and schemes.

The only thing left to do was to find a scapegoat. I could not implicate any of the other Royal Covens, such as the Irish or Welsh; no, it would have to be someone close at hand. Fortunately for me, there was a certain prophetess in the dungeons beneath Volterra…

I emerged from the chamber, a look of pure sadness on my face. "Cassandra has failed yet again," I wept. "I fear the consequences of her ailing Sight."

Chelsea leapt to her feet. "I shall fetch her for you, master!"

I nodded. "She is my dear friend, but she is old. Her Sight is going awry," I said, in a tone of deepest sympathy. "She must be put out of her misery, for her own sake and ours."


	13. The Trial

**It's now been one year since my arrival upon the golden shores of Fanfiction. I've met so many wonderful people, who have encouraged me to keep on writing. I've gotten about 6000 views, 150 wonderful reviews, about 70 favourites and 50 alerts! As a special treat for all of my deprived readers, I am updating almost ALL of my fanfictions. Consider it a Christmas present, and please forgive me for not updating in a long time! Enjoy!**

Chapter Twelve: So Be It.

**Cassandra POV:**

The door to my cell burst open loudly, but I did not flinch. I had seen this coming for a long time. I closed my eyes, already knowing where Chelsea would place her feet as she made her way across my lightless cell and grabbed me roughly by the shoulders.

"Your time has come, old witch," she hissed triumphantly. With her bare fists, she tore apart the chains that bound me to the granite walls. The rusty iron shattered into pieces with a bang, pelting me with debris. My legs collapsed, having relied on the shackles for support over the centuries, and my face fell flat into the dirt.

Chelsea dragged me mercilessly across the ground, and I gagged as the earth was shoveled down my throat.

I had seen this coming, and so I endured the pain. Exactly as I had foreseen, I was dragged up the ancient stone steps, away from the darkness of the dungeons and into the opulence of the Volturi castle.

It had changed so much in the centuries since I had last walked through it as a free woman – the golden chandeliers had tarnished and dull, the delicate tapestries on the walls were torn and tattered, and the once-bright marble stones had become a weeping gray.

I sighed. Aro would drive himself and all his followers to extinction. But that I could not help, no more than I could save my own life. I merely hoped that everything that we had built would not be ground to dust in a single moment of passion – yet, in all the futures that I saw, it seemed the most likely to come to pass.

In his madness, Aro would eventually destroy all our kind.

It was destined to come to pass.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, enchanted dark lights flooded my eyes as I was dragged into the main hall. Chelsea released her grip, and I fell to the ground, next to the feet of Aro.

The quiet whispering was instantly silenced as Aro raised his hand, and stared into my eyes for the first time in centuries.

**Alec POV:**

I watched silently as a beaten and bruised old woman was dragged into the hall. Her skin was smeared with bloody wounds, something rarely seen in our kind. Her mouth was misshapen, and her teeth were blackened and crooked. Her hair was white and missing in patches from her scalp.

She was the most hideous vampire I'd ever seen.

I had spent so much time amongst the Volturi that I had forgotten almost everything from my previous life. Suddenly, it came rushing back to me – the filthy room that we had spent our nights in, crying; the spiders that crawled on our skin at night; the cold body of our stepfather, his eyes covered with black ice –

"Cut it out," hissed Jane, grabbing my hand and squeezing it.

The memories stopped, and I was left feeling like an empty shell once again.

**Jane POV:**

I couldn't understand what was wrong with Alec. We were in the middle of a perfectly good slaughter, and all he could think about was … human life. He was trying to hide it from me, but I could hear his thoughts as though they were my own.

"Cut it out," I said, grabbing his hand and subtly sending a wave of heat through it. The weak thoughts burned in my fire, and were purged from my brother's mind like rising smoke.

"The best part is about to begin," I said excitedly, leaning over the balcony to get a better view of what was happening below.

**Cassandra POV:**

Aro's voice echoed throughout the hall. He was speaking with false sympathy, so sweet that it was like poisoned honey. But I knew that everyone in the room was already under his spell, and that they did not understand what was truly happening.

"Cassandra," he said. "My dear, dear friend."

I did not even bother to speak. Everything that could be done had already been done. I only hoped that Afton would be able to find what I had left behind.

If this was the end for me, then so be it. I had lived long past the point of meaning in my life. I had never truly been in love. I had not done anything great with my life. I had so many opportunities to make a positive difference in the world, but I had wasted those chances – I had wasted my life helping a madman.

But Death would not stop me from reversing those mistakes. I only hoped that Afton would be able to find what I had left behind.

As it is written, so shall it be. I had met my apportioned fate long ago. Now I would fall - but at least I would take Aro with me.

**Aro POV:**

The time had come at last.

The last great obstacle to my rule.

The dawn of a new world.

And I would be its emperor.

Thoughts were racing across my mind, and I could almost feel my dead heart pumping in my chest. Excitement filled my entire being, and I struggled to keep up the façade as I spoke to Cassandra.

"Cassandra," I said, in the most soothing tone I could muster. All the idiots in the Volturi were so enamored by me that they would not suspect anything. "My dear, dear friend."

She kept an adamant silence, and her gray eyes pierced straight into mine. I almost panicked, but then I remembered that I had the upper hand here. She was trapped, and her power was of no use in combat. We were surrounded by my loyal followers, who with a flick of a finger would pounce upon her and tear to pieces.

But more _finesse _was needed here. She deserved a clean death, for she had done nothing but help me in my pursuit of power. Her gift had found so many of the Volturi, even Alec and Jane. But she had outlived her purpose. The twins were the crowning jewels in my collection, and I no longer needed any other vampires. My army was perfect, ready to march upon the world beneath the burning sun, and devour the world of mortals.

"There has been too much tragedy in these halls," I sighed. "Didyme is no more. So many have left our family. Your gift has failed, my dear, and I think that the time has come."

Cassandra remained silent. The hall was completely silent. Not a breath stirred the air.

"You are the oldest amongst all of us here," I continued. "You can barely remain in the present time for more than a moment. It's like being in a bad dream, isn't it?" I asked, faking sympathy.

She did not say a word.

"Your death will be completely painless," I said, speaking one of my rare truths. I bore no grudge towards my old friend – it was just a simple truth of eternal life that to survive, friends must sometimes be sacrificed.

"I will miss you," I whispered, and motioned with my hand. Dimitri and Felix emerged from the shadows, and gently lifted Cassandra from the ground. She did not struggle as I thought she would, she did not scream or shout – but instead gazed at me with her frozen, milky eyes.

And then she was gone, vanished behind the gilded, golden gate of the castle that she had helped to build.

The silence lingered in the hall.


	14. Revolution

Chapter Thirteen:

**Afton POV:**

I glanced at the coffin sadly. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, and the joints were so rusty that they seemed about to break. It was just one of many in the dark stone passage, resting in an alcove in the wall. But I liked it here, in the solitude and peace of death.

Only here, deep beneath the earth in the dungeons, could I escape from Chelsea's iron shackles over my mind. She was the vampire who had turned me, and had great power over me. She could make me love her with my body, but my mind refused to believe her.

My mind refused to forget.

I gently slid aside the lid of the coffin, and laid a cold finger on the body within. Yvaine was still beautiful, perfectly preserved by rare and powerful ointments I had bought in Egypt. Her golden hair had grown since I saw her last, and now stretched from her head all the way to her delicate feet.

She was my first and only love. Even the sight of her now made me smile. She was the only bright light for me, in a life that had lost all other meaning. She was dead… but so was I, really.

I reached out and held her hand. It felt warm and loving to me. I remembered all the brief time we had spent together, and managed to smile a bit. She was a peasant girl, the daughter of a poor farmer, and I was the son of a rich corporate magnate.

I thought I was happy with money and limitless riches. I had drinks and cars, and many women – but none of those things made me happy. I was sent to a village on the outskirts of London, to oversee its destruction to make way for the railroads that were so rapidly spreading across the country.

It was there that I met Yvaine. She taught me the meaning of life. I was happy, and I married her. We stopped the construction of the railroad, and fled to Oxford – far, far away from the wrath of my parents. But they found us in the end, and in a moment of anger, I discovered my power to make people obey me, and used it to kill them.

My voice also found its way to Yvaine's ears, and her heart stopped. She died in my arms, with a smile on her face.

I ran my hand along her slender body, closing my eyes and trying to remember life before my death. I let my fingers rest upon her heart, and felt its warmth glowing from her chest.

Wait.

There was something else, slid in between the folds of her gown. With trembling fingers, I picked it up.

It was a tiny scroll, written on ancient parchment in what seemed to be blood. The words were hastily written, and very crude, as though they had been cut with a fallen tooth. It was torn in places, but still legible.

I read it, hoping for some kind of message written by Yvaine before her death. Was there some way, some strange art that she had used to hide this scroll from me until this day? Perhaps she had something to tell me, one last declaration of our love –

It was not.

It was a scroll, and it was written by Cassandra.

I unfurled it with shaking hands and began to read.

**Iribelle POV:**

"There is **fear** in the air tonight," I smiled, and licked my lips seductively.

Athenal smiled, and hugged me tightly, until my head was rested on his strong chest. I could smell my mate in all his glory, a scent like musk, sweat and blood. It smelt delicious to me, and I felt a quivering inside of me as I ran my tongue along his belly, pulling off his shirt as I went.

"Belle," he murmured before we kissed, and wrapped his arms around my waist. I did the same, and quietly slipped my hands into his pants. I could smell his arousal, and it spurred my own, and we kissed passionately, fangs clashing as our tongues fought for dominance.

**Afton POV: **

I could hardly believe what I was reading. It undermined the very principles upon which I had spent the last five decades of my life. It meant that every single one of us here in Volterra was complicit to Aro's madness.

I closed my eyes. There was no time to waste. Cassandra's scroll was addressed to one person in particular, and he had to read it. I focused all my thoughts, gathering them and casting my conscience out of the depths of the earth and back to the surface. I found the minds of Jane and Alec, tiny in comparison to the ancient powers that inhabited the castle. They had not developed defences against me, and they were the only ones that I could command with any degree of certainty.

_**Find Athenal and Iribelle! **_

**Iribelle POV:**

"What are you doing?"

o_o

We sat up bolt upright, pulling the covers over our undressed bodies. Alec and Jane were staring at us with childish curiosity from the door.

O_O

"Wrestling," I said quickly, nudging Athenal in the ribs. He grabbed our clothes, and we changed with the practiced speed of people who have been walked in on before – in fact, we had been walked in on in all sorts of places. Crypts, freshly-dug graves, public toilets at night… that sort of thing.

"What are you two doing here?" asked Athenal, awkwardly. He wasn't sure how much the two of them had seen.

"Afton asked us to deliver a message to you," said Jane cheerfully, then turned to her brother. "Alec, do you want to wrestle too?"

Athenal and I glanced at each other. Afton rarely had reason to call upon us, or anyone. He must have been in one of his rare lucid moments where he could discern which were his own thoughts and which were Chelsea's.

"Thanks," I said sharply to the twins, then swung out of bed. Hopefully, the empty bed wouldn't give them any ideas. That would be… twincest.

We left the twins in our room and rushed down the hall, going as quickly as we could so as to not arouse suspicion. I once sensed Chelsea coming down the corridor, no doubt searching for her unwilling husband, but we managed to avoid her until we came close to the entrance to the dungeons.

The door was not bolted, which was strange. We followed the tall, winding spiral staircase deeper into the earth, ignoring the hundreds of side passages that we came upon along the way. Volterra was a cemetery before we had taken over it, and the catacombs still existed beneath the castle proper. I followed Afton's scent until we came upon a narrow corridor, halfway down the stair, and moved down it.

"His fear is getting stronger," I whispered, my voice loud in the narrow space. On either side of us were alcoves, with skeletal remains shoved into them. Some of them housed simple coffins, and others were empty – but Afton's scent was becoming stronger, and his fear wilder.

"Afton?" shouted Athenal, his voice echoing throughout the catacombs, rattling the bones of the ancient dead. "What happened?"

A moment later, Afton emerged from the darkness. He was shaking, and in his hand was a small scroll.

"We have to leave. Now!"


	15. Truth and Revelation

**Merry Christmas, everybody! Here is the second-last chapter of The Witch Twins. I've had hundreds of readers, but only two reviews, which makes me very sad. If you want the final chapter, I hope that every one of you will take the time to click the button and review. If not… it will remain in the gutter of my mind forever. **

Chapter Fourteen:

**Iribelle POV:**

"We have to leave. Now!"

"What?" I asked, confused. Afton's mind was so overwhelmed with emotions that it resembled an exploding minefield.

**"Walk!" **he shouted, and we instantly felt compelled to obey. My body shivered like a puppet on broken strings, then I stumbled down the dark corridor, back towards the winding staircase.

"What's going on?" demanded Athenal. "Why did you call us down here?"

"I found something," mumbled Afton, delirious. "Aro's been misleading us all along. He didn't start the Volturi to preserve peace. He made us so that he could take over the surface world."

"What?" I spat, unbelieving. Aro had never shown signs of such daring. "The humans outnumber us by far, and breed like rabbits. There's no way we could wipe them all out."

"Not according to Cassandra," said Afton grimly, revealing what he clutched in his hand. "Aro's been planning this for centuries. That's why he never lets the powerful members of his coven go. He's building his own personal army."

"Give me that," snarled Athenal, and the scroll flew out of Afton's hands. He unfurled it and began to read as we ran up the stairs, towards the dim candlelight at the top of the narrow stairwell.

A moment later, his face turned pale.

"_Mio Dio!"_

**Alec POV: **

Jane and I were waiting in Iribelle's room. Well, at least I was waiting. Jane was looking through all their drawers, trying on some of Iribelle's clothes and smearing lipstick on her face. She now stared into the large mirror that hung on the wall, admiring her own reflection.

"I always thought that vampires didn't have reflections," she murmured absently.

My thoughts were directed towards more important matters. Athenal and Iribelle had left more than half an hour ago, and had not reappeared since. Something important was going on in Volterra this night.

I could sense the tension in the air, like a steel string about to snap. Not everyone in the castle was in their rooms. They were walking. Searching.

I could hear Aro's voice from some distance down the corridor, angrier than I had never heard it before.

"Where are they?" he shouted, followed by the sound of bones cracking.

"I don't know!" screamed a woman's voice that I did not recognize. There was a horrible slashing, then I could smell cold blood on the ground, seeping into the stones.

"Find them!" shouted Aro. "And find the twins! Do **not **let them leave this castle!"

**Jane POV:**

I sat very calmly by the dresser, watching my brother through the glass. I was a sociopath and a sadist - but as much as he doubted it, I would not suffer any harm to come to my brother. I could hear footsteps thundering down the corridor, and quickly shifted my gaze to the door.

The fire crept back into my eyes, and they glowed a bright red as Renata burst into the room.

She almost seemed relieved to see us. That is, before a screaming jet of flames burst from my mind and dropped her like a stone. She convulsed on the ground, writhing in pain as she felt her legs being smashed by a hammer.

There was actually no need for that, since she wasn't going to attack us – but it was fun to have an excuse to torture the bitch. Jane 2, Bitch 0.

I swung out of the chair and headed out the door. If Aro wanted to play grown-up…

**Athenal POV:**

"My God… this explains everything," I whispered hoarsely, trembling as I read the scroll. "Aro is responsible for everything! He killed Didyme! He … he killed me, too."

I remembered the night I was turned. I was a stage actor in Roma. The Italians of that time were a rather strange people, swept by the wave of the Renaissance, and I made a living by playing tragic comedies.

One night, as I enacted my suicide scene, with a knife that for the past three years had always been a fake… I slit my own throat. I died right then and there. I woke up a day later in the morgue, with a horrifyingly pale and blood-splattered man crouched over my corpse. His name was Caius, and he invited me to join the Volturi.

I was angry and confused then, and accepted. I had spent the last century searching for the person who had killed me. And now, it seemed… I had been dwelling in his halls for most of my life.

_"Aro, figlio di __**puttana**__!" _

**Iribelle POV:**

"Stop!" I hissed, preventing Athenal and Afton from going any further up the stairs. "They are searching for us! They are panicking. They fear that we have left Volterra!"

Athenal was angrier than I had ever seen him. He snarled and tried to get past me, his fists tightly balled up and ready for battle. But the fear in the night had empowered me, and I pinned him to the wall.

"You're going to get yourself killed, Ath. Stay here."

"We need a plan," muttered Afton. "We cannot fight them. Subtlety is needed here."

I looked up and down the stairwell. There was no place to go. We were trapped, and Aro would have his minions searching here in moments.

There was no place to go… except the dungeons.

"Come on!" I shouted, dragging the two men along with me.

We rushed down the stairwell, into the darkness and ran until the scent of blood was in the air once again. There were narrow grooves carved into the dungeon floor, and a constant trickle of blood ran through them. We kept some living humans in the cells here, so we always had a fresh supply of fresh meat. The dungeons opened into the Santa Maria Assunta, the cathedral through which we had first brought the twins to Volterra.  
It was our only chance of escape.

**Afton POV:**

We ran through the lightless dungeons, ignoring the pitiful cries of the human cattle we held prisoner. We had only minutes to spare before Aro figured out where we had gone, maybe even less. We would have a slightly better chance if we caused some chaos...

"Go on," I shouted, and ducked into one of the side passages. Athenal and Iribelle did not even break their stride, quickly running out of my line of sight.

I ran my fingers along the rusty metal locks, breaking them with just a touch. There were at least a dozen humans contained here, enough to cause a brief distraction.

**"Fight!" **I shouted, shocking them with my voice. But they needed no encouragement – with a feral scream, the crazed and starved humans charged towards the stairwell, kicking and punching each other in their rush to escape.

I turned towards the exit, ready to run – but a pair of bloody red eyes met mine in the darkness.

"Going so soon, my love?"

Chelsea lunged at me, her face twisted with rage. Her fangs had grown to twice their normal size, and were bursting out from her mouth. She slammed into me and knocked me to the ground, and tried to tear out my neck.

"I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!" she screamed, her fangs sinking into my flesh. "I LOVE YOU! IS THAT SO HARD TO ACCEPT?"

I smashed my fists into her face, sending her flying backwards. She smashed into the wine racks, and glass shards flew into her eyes and chest. Chelsea screamed, and I wasted no time in running towards the exit.

"I do not love you," I snarled, and slammed the grille shut.


	16. Divided

Chapter Fifteen: _Divided _

**The tension between Jane and Alec reach a high, and they fight to the death. Meanwhile, Iribelle and Athenal encounter a Child of the Moon in the dungeons. **

**Jane POV:**

I walked down the corridor, with Alec close behind me. Something was up, and I was determined to find out what. Aro wanted to keep us here, and it sounded too much like an order for my liking.

"Find them!" came a roar from down the corridor. The voice was clearly Aro's, and it was burning with anger.

"No need for that," I shouted back. "We're here."

I could hear his sigh of relief as we turned the corner. He turned to face us, and I could immediately see that something had gone wrong. His eyes were a bloody red, not just in the irises, but a seeping stain that had covered all the white.

"Excellent," he said, with none of his usual theatrics. He seemed to be having trouble staying upright, and was leaning on one of his three guards. I had seen them before, but did not know their names. Their faces were troubled, and their bodies tense.

"What's happening?" I demanded.

"There's been a breach," replied one of the guards, who was a woman with short blonde hair. "Iribelle, Athenal and Afton have gone rogue, and they've released the prisoners in the dungeons."

"Our first priority is to find them," rasped Aro. "Emilio… find Marcus and Caius. Tell them to seal every exit out of Volterra."

One of the guards – a man with short black hair – nodded, and then vanished in a cloud of red smoke.

"What do you want us to do?" I asked, glancing at Alec. I could sense that he was worried about Athenal. Weaklings, the both of them.

"Go to the Main Hall," he gasped, pointing down the corridor. "If they attempt to escape through there, you **must **stop them!"

I nodded and turned on my heel, grabbed Alec's hand and dragged him along with me.

**Iribelle POV:**

Athenal and I ran through the darkness. We had been separated from Afton, but his safety was only a secondary concern. I could just barely make out the shape of the metal grille, a few feet ahead of us – we had almost made it!

We both grabbed one corner of the grille, and easily tore it apart. The wooden door, marked with the blood-red **V **was ahead of us, and it required words before it would let us pass.

_ "Conosca uno, conosca molti!" _I shouted, but to no effect. "Damn it!"

"They've changed the words," murmured Athenal, and he glared at the door. A wave of crushing force exploded from his body, pounding the door – but it did not budge.

"We have to find another way - " I began, but was silenced as the groaning of metal sounded from all around us. A massive slab of iron fell from the ceiling, and landed mere inches away from us. The way back was blocked – we were effectively trapped.

Athenal roared, and focused his will on the metal. It crumpled slightly, but was too large to crush, and he stumbled backwards, clutching his head.

"There must be another way," I hissed, looking around the tiny space. There was only the sealed door in front of us, and the narrow passage to our sides. I grabbed his hand and without thinking twice, ran deeper into the dungeon.

**Aro POV:**

I stumbled down the corridor, trying to make sense of the situation. Just a day ago, everything had been going according to plan. But now… my weave was unraveling. Something had to be done!

Athenal and Iribelle were trapped in the dungeon. That was good, but the walls would not hold them for long. Something far more drastic was needed if I were to stop them.

I burst into my private chambers, which were mercifully empty. Athenadora must have been alarmed by the crisis and taken away by one of the guards. That was good – I would not have liked to kill her if she had gotten in my way.

I made my way to the large mirror that hung on the wall, and pressed my palm to it. A wave of silver light rippled across the glass.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, from deep beneath the ground, came the slow and hungry cry of a wolf.

**Athenal POV:**

We ran through the darkness without stopping. They would be upon us in moments, and we had to get out of the dungeons before then. Even the castle would be a better place to fight than this, groping around in the darkness –

And then, there was a piercing howl. We froze in our tracks, eyes darting around, searching blindly for whatever had made the noise. I knew that Aro kept all sorts of creatures locked in the dungeons… but this was too much, even for him.

I created a barrier of force around us, causing the air to ripple like water. Iribelle tensed up and seemed to grow in size, and a dark flame flickered around the edges of her body.

A moment later, a massive weight crashed into my shield. I staggered from the impact, holding it up for less than a second before it shattered. Iribelle hissed and lunged forward, grabbing the huge beast that was before us.

It was in the shape of a wolf, only twice as large. It was almost as tall as me, and its huge yellow eyes stared into mine. Its fangs were jutting out of its mouth, and dripped with hot saliva. It howled as Iribelle grabbed it around the neck, and tossed violently as it tried to shake her off.

She struck it square in the jaw, causing it roar in pain, and grabbed its neck. Her eyes glowed a furious red as she snapped its neck, and lowered her fangs to the exposed flesh, sinking into the beast's jugular and draining its blood.

It struggled for a while before giving a silent whimper and falling to the ground. Iribelle jumped off its corpse, blood still dripping from the corners of her mouth.

"What was that?" I asked, staring at the creature's corpse. It was definitely dead, and the glow in its eyes had gone out.

"Don't know, don't care," she replied, grabbing my hand. "We have to run - "

_SNAP. _

The sound of cracking bones echoed throughout the dungeon, and we turned in alarm. The corpse of the beast was twitching, as its spilt blood oozed across the damp ground and back into its body. It seemed to disintegrate, becoming a flurry of black sparks that hovered in the air, before coming together into the shape of a woman.

She had short black hair, and the features of a vampire. But her eyes glowed with a strange, lunar white, of the same shade as the crescent moon that was burnt onto her forehead.

"Such strength," she said, snapping her neck back into place. "I do believe that we can be of mutual benefit to each other."

**Alec POV:**

"What are we supposed to do?" I hissed at Jane. We were standing in the Main Hall, which was empty save for the two of us. The glowing lights that normally hung in the ceiling had gone out, leaving us in the darkness.

"We stop them," she replied. "Actually, we should kill them if we can."

"What?" I hissed. "They're our friends. They rescued us from that forest, remember?"

"No, I don't," she glared. "That's what we were, and this is what we are now. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Is it so wrong that I want to be human, in some small way?" I said. There was a quiet _whoosh_, and the temperature fell by several degrees. The goblets of blood on the dining table began to freeze. I was angry, and I couldn't help it. I didn't _want _to contain it anymore.

"Yes," she snapped. "Stop that!"

Her eyes flared red, and a delicate porcelain plate exploded, pelting us with shards. But as they flew, they froze solid, dropping to the ground and breaking into tiny pieces of ice.

"I don't have to listen to everything you say."

I absorbed all the heat in the room, and could almost see each individual atom grind to a halt. A thin layer of ice raced along the ground, crawling up the tables and chairs, shooting up the walls until the entire chamber had been covered in thick hoarfrost.

"You want to play?" she hissed, taking a step away from me. "Let's play."

If I had stopped the atoms, then Jane made them dance wildly – she ignited every particle in the room, making it blaze like a furnace. A wave of heat tore through the Hall, melting my ice in mere moments, and causing a torrent of boiling water to cascade from every direction.

I did not move, but closed my eyes, using the force of my mind to freeze the water. The flood stopped in its tracks, solidifying, becoming an icy series of loops and whirls that wound around the chamber.

Jane shrieked as the ice shot up her body, encasing her completely. For a moment, I hesitated – but it was unnecessary, as she burst into flames, destroying the ice. Her eyes were blazing, and her hair was a fiery mane, swirling around her head, each strand hissing like a snake.

She glared at me, and for the tiniest moment, I actually felt her power work through me. I shouted out in agonizing pain, as every bone in my body seemed to splinter, and fell to my knees. She advanced triumphantly, and unleashed a jet of flames from her mouth, singing my clothes.

As she stepped towards me, I summoned the cold mist. It seeped into her eyes, turning them a poisoned shade of black – she choked, and fell to the ground. It worked its way through her body, turning her muscles into ice, and rendered her power useless.

I walked towards her, watching her squirm on the ground, struggling to breathe. She could not see me, hear me, or feel anything at all – she was trapped in the darkness, completely alone.

"I wish that this could have ended some other way," I said, quietly, to ears that could no longer hear me.

**Review, or you'll never know how this ends. **


	17. Same

**Chapter Sixteen: The Same**

**The second last chapter of the Witch Twins, which means it's going to be pretty long :D The next one will, absolutely be, the final chapter. I know I'm dragging it out, but I figure better an update than none at all.**

**Jane and Alec have some heartfelt sibling time, and he makes a great sacrifice. Iribelle finally shows her powers, and the Child of the Moon goes on a vengeful rampage. **

**Iribelle's POV:**

"Such strength," she said, snapping her neck back into place. "I do believe that we can be of mutual benefit to each other."

The woman simply rose from the ground, cracking her bones back into place, and letting her protruding ribs slide back into her chest. Her flesh healed almost instantly, and the blood that had been spilt dried up moments later.

"What do you want?" I hissed, pushing Athenal behind me. I darkened again, feeding off the fear of the prisoners that had pervaded the dungeons for thousands of years, and becoming incredibly strong for it. I felt the power surge through my body, strengthening my muscles and hardening my skin.

"Nothing from you in particular," shrugged the woman, walking towards us. "But you happened to come along at this moment. You cannot leave this place," she said, pointing at the massive stone walls that surrounded us. "And neither can I."

"I propose an alliance," she said, her dark eyes glistening. "We escape from Volterra, then go our separate ways. And if we can kill Aro along the way, that's just a bonus, isn't it?"

I turned my back to her, and kept a firm grip on Athenal's hand, almost cracking it with my enhanced strength. "Come on, let's go. We don't need her."

"Yes we do," he whispered into my ear. "We can't even get out of here, let alone escape the castle."

I ignored him, even though I knew that he was right, and dragged him away. The woman was a Child of the Moon, that much was clear – Caius hated all their kind, and if he had kept this particular one alive, then she was either very powerful, or very, very cunning.

We came to a dead end, several feet of solid stone. I screamed and punched at it wildly, tearing off massive chunks, but they were incredibly thick, and I barely made a dent in them.

The Child of the Moon walked in between Athenal and I – _bitch_ – and gave a little smile. She flicked her wrists at the wall, causing it to literally explode outwards – bits of flaming debris filled the air, and a burst of heat almost knocked us to our feet.

"Come on," she said, grabbing Athenal's hand and running off into the newly-cleared passage. I gave a snarl, and ran after them.

**Aro's POV:**

I burst into the Main Hall, with the rest of the Volturi behind me. It had been transformed into some sort of frozen palace – ice covered everything, and a gentle snow fell from the ceiling. Ramps of ice raced across the room, and falling objects had been frozen in mid-air.

The Volturi were confused, but followed the orders I had given – they formed a perimeter around the room, covering every possible exit. There was no way that they could escape now – it was now the time to kill or be killed.

"Where are the twins?" I demanded.

"We don't know," admitted Renata, who clung to my side. "They attacked me when I attempted to retrieve them. I am sorry, master - "

I roared and struck down the woman, knocking her down the stairs. There she cowered, not daring to move or even breathe.

"Find them!" I ordered. We _needed _them if we were going to capture Iribelle and Athenal!

**Alec's POV:**

Of course, I was standing in front of them the entire time. I had used my powers to conceal us, and blinded them in the area where we were standing. The entire hall had been covered in my ice, and it glistened in the dark lights that flew above, in the ceiling.

Jane lay before me, shrouded in not fire, but smoke. I had drained the heat from the air around her; with no fuel, her flames had ceased to burn. Smoke rose from her eyes and mouth, a thick black smoke as the inferno within her body weakly attempted to ignite.

Her eyes had turned black, but I imagined that they were looking upon me with fury. She was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth, trapped in a place of complete darkness. She could not feel anything, except for the truth and horror of the endless life that she had chosen.

"Make it stop," she breathed. Her eyes quivered, but she could not cry. "Father. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

And there, in her one moment of weakness, I imagined that Jane might have cried. But her body was dead, as dead as her soul, and the despair welled up inside her with no way to escape.

My eyes flickered to the stairs, where Aro stood. Our eyes met for just an instant, as though he could see us; but he was blind to my body, my smell, and anything else that could have betrayed me. I might as well have not existed.

There was a sudden movement in the wall behind me. I felt an explosion through the earth beneath Volterra, as though something was blasting its way out. There was a feral snarling, almost as though a wolf was digging its way through the foundations.

I was alarmed. There was another explosion, and then another, coming closer and closer.

Aro had said that prisoners had escaped from the dungeons. What could possibly be –

_Bang._

The ground before me burst into flames, the stone literally being torn apart, each molecule being torn apart from the other with explosive force. The light was blinding, and I felt the heat of the flames and searing light burn my eyes.

I stood there, stunned, when a light finger tapped my shoulder.

Iribelle was standing behind me, with a victorious smile on her face. Athenal was with her, though he did not smile so much as grimace. There was another woman with them, her hands glowing with destructive power, and her smile was wicked and royal.

"Can't hide your fear," Iribelle said, tapping her head. The sheer amount of terror flowing through the blood spilled in Volterra tonight had made her change. She was taller, darker, greater – her black hair seemed to be water, spilling down her shoulders and into her shadow.

"Are you running away?" I asked her.

She knelt down, until her eyes – terrible, black eyes now – were piercing into mine. She laid her hand on my shoulder, and leaned so close that her perfume seemed like poison, sweet and deadly.

"Yes. But are you coming with us?" she urged.

I glanced at Jane, silently sobbing on the ground. This place had brought out the worst in her. The creature there, her hands soaked with blood, was not my sister. It had taken over her, burned inside her like a fire, and she killed to quench that thirst.

I made a decision, then and there. I laid a hand on Jane's shoulder, and though she could not feel me, I knew that she did – somehow. She relaxed a little, and did not scream as I released the frozen power within me, putting out the flame that burned within her. I stripped her of that terrible power, her ability to burn everything she saw with her fiery gaze. The flames would no longer listen to her, she was not their mistress any longer; but at the same time, I could not control the ice.

In that moment, the frozen water throughout the hall burst back into life. A wave of water fell from all directions, roiling, churning, ready to crush us all – but it struck an invisible barrier, a white sphere that rose from Athenal's hands.

"Let's go!" he roared.

At that very moment, as the greater part of my power was sacrificed, it ceased to protect us from Aro's gaze. The mental amnesia that prevented all the Volturi from seeing us broke down, and they came upon us like a swarm of locusts.

A few moments of confusion followed. There was a hiss and a snarl, followed by a monstrous roar from a creature I had never seen before. It was a massive black wolf, easily thrice my size, with massive fangs that were covered in blood. The beast leapt from the crater it had made and across the hall, crashing into the crystal chandeliers and smashing them into tiny fragments. It landed on the grand steps, seizing one of the vampires there, and before he could even defend himself, was torn into two bloody halves.

Three vampires hissed and leapt onto the creature's back, but it roared and smashed itself into the marble wall, smashing every bone in their bodies. They fell to the floor, screaming, and the creature sank its fangs into them, ripping apart not only their hearts but their arms and legs, anything that could be torn off.

This was the first time I saw Iribelle use her powers, and I would never forget it. She moved faster than a shadow, vanishing from before me and reappearing behind Renata, sinking her fangs into the other woman's neck. She savaged her like a wild animal, her elegance invisible behind blind fury. Renata screamed, trying to shield herself, but Iribelle was all the stronger for her fear. With one clawed hand, Iribelle slashed Renata's throat and threw her body aside.

And Athenal, who had never done anything more than shield with his mind, was enraged now. He lifted the glass shards of the crystal chandeliers, easily a thousand of them, tiny, sharp glass fragments – held them in the air for a minute, before the Volturi could realize what was happening.

It was like a volley of arrows. The vampires were pierced by the long shards, through their skulls and hearts and everywhere in between – they were flung against the walls by the force of the blow, screaming as they were impaled, before finally falling silent.

"Alec?" whispered Jane, as she stirred. I stroked her hair, as she lay in my lap, her voice clear for the first time in a long while.

"You're alright," I said, in what I hoped was a soothing tone. I was normally the younger one, the one who needed comfort. But nothing was the same anymore, I could forget all about my life and what I knew – everything was changed. Jane needed me.


End file.
